January 23, 2010

"Many theologians have maintained that justification means 'to make righteous'. They assert that the term points to a change in men, so that, by the grace of God, they become the kind of people they ought to be. This is to confuse justification and sanctification. The very way we use the term ought to put us on our guard against this error. When we speak of justifying an opinion or action we do not mean that we change or improve it. Rather we mean that we secure a verdict for it, we vindicate it. And just as the English verb has nothing to do with changing for the better so is it with Greek verb. It signifies 'to declare righteous', 'to acquit', and not 'to make righteous'. While it is true that the justified man will be deeply concerned with holy living, it is also true that justification is not simply another name for his holy life. It refers to his standing before God, to God's acceptance of him."

January 2, 2010

1—I saw the cross of JesusWhen burden'd with my sin ;I sought the cross of JesusTo give me peace within :I brought my sin to Jesus ;He cleans'd it in His blood ;And in the cross of JesusI found my peace with God.

2—I love the cross of Jesus.It tells me what I am ;A vile and guilty creature,Saved only through the Lamb :No righteousness, no merit,No beauty can I plead ;Yet in the cross I glory,My title there I read.

3—I clasp the cross of Jesus,In ev'ry trying hour,My sure and certain refuge,My never failing tower.In every fear and conflict,I more than conqueror am ;Living I'm safe, or dying,Through Christ the risen Lamb.

4—Sweet is the cross of Jesus !There let my weary heartStill rest in perfect peace'Till life itself depart.And then in strains of gloryI'll sing Thy wond'rous power,Where sin can never enter,And death is known no more.

January 1, 2010

Does the Watchtower's doctrine of human existence uphold the dignity of man or destroy it?

The Watchtower says Jehovah fashions a body and infuses it with the breath of life. You become "you" over time as you develop your character, thought life, emotional and mental life. In other words, you start as a blank slate of a body and impersonal energy that combine to become the person who is you, made up of your life experiences, memories, tastes, passions, ideas, character, emotional makeup, etc. This doctrine of human existence is intensely mechanical and physical. "You" consist of the firing of synapses in the brain controlling the physical body fashioned by Jehovah, energized by impersonal energy originally infused by Jehovah but now maintained through the natural living processes of the physical body.

What happens when you die? The Watchtower says that the impersonal energy dissipates or returns to God and your physical body rots away. You cease to exist entirely. There is no more "you" to be found anywhere. This is a fairly consistent application of their theory of being that an individual consists of a body, the breath of life, and their collected memories and character. Since the body and impersonal energy are split asunder, there is nothing left of the individual as their character, thought life, emotional and mental life cannot continue in the absence of a container and energy.

What happens when you are "resurrected", according to the Watchtower? Remember, you do not exist at all in any manner after your death. There is nothing to raise again. It is not a resurrection in the sense of raising "you" up. There can only be a new creature who is somehow made to believe it is you. To accomplish this, the Watchtower teaches that Jehovah God fashions a new blank-slate body and infuses it with the impersonal breath of life. But at this point, the story of this new human diverges from your original creation. Rather than allowing this physical body/impersonal energy human to develop as you were allowed to, Jehovah steps in and implants the memories of your life, fooling this new human into thinking that it is somehow "you". This is not and can never be "you". It is a new human who has been robbed of its own existence and self worth. It has been tricked through implanted memories to believe it is truly "you" through memories that are not its own, character that is not its own, emotional and mental life that is not its own.

Does the Watchtower's doctrine of human existence uphold the dignity of man or destroy it?